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Chapters: Japanese American service in World War II, Tammy Duckworth, Military history of Asian Americans, List of Asian American Medal of Honor recipients, Young-Oak Kim, Francis B. Wai, Daniel Akaka, Bhagat Singh Thind, John Fugh, James Yee, Mun Charn Wong, John Pippy, Daniel Choi, Stephen Funk, Elmelindo Rodrigues Smith, Ralph Siu, Vietnamese American Armed Forces Association, Quang X. Pham, Susan Ahn Cuddy, Wah Kau Kong,. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 118. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Ladda Tammy Duckworth (born March 1968) is the Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. She was previously the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. Duckworth is an Iraq War veteran and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot whose severe combat wounds cost her both of her legs and damaged her right arm. She continues to serve as a Major in the Illinois Army National Guard along with her husband, Major Bryan W. Bowlsbey, a signal officer and fellow Iraq War veteran. In the 2006 election, Duckworth was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for the sixth district of Illinois which was being vacated by long-time Representative Henry Hyde. Duckworth lost to her opponent, Representative Peter Roskam, by 2% of the vote. A supporter of the presidential election campaign of Barack Obama, Duckworth was given a prime-time speaking slot on the third night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Duckworth was born in Bangkok, Thailand, to Frank and Lamai S. Duckworth. Her father (died 2005) was a former longtime member of the U.S. military who traced his family roots in America all the way back to the Revolutionary War; her mother, a native of Thailand, is of Chinese ancestry. She has one br...http://booksllc.net/?id=3691615 ... Read more

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Chapters: Military History of Asian Americans, Ronald Takaki, Him Mark Lai, Asiatic Exclusion League, Ruthanne Lum Mccunn, Rho Psi. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 44. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Asian Americans have fought on behalf of the United States since the War of 1812 until today. Due to the small population of Asian Americans in the 19th Century their contributions were not heavily recorded. In the 20th Century as the population of Asian Americans have increased contributions and documentation of their contributions have increased in kind. Map of Battle of New OrleansThe first recorded history of Asian Americans fighting on behalf of the United States was recorded as far back as 1815 when General Andrew Jackson recorded "Manilamen" had fought alongside his in defense of New Orleans, under the command of Jean Baptiste Lafitte. After this Asian Americans were not recorded in the annuls of U.S. Military History until the American Civil War when in 1861 a Chinese American by the name of John Tomney joined the New York Infantry, eventually dying of wounds received at the Battle of Gettysburg. He was to be followed by William Ah Hang in 1863, a Chinese American who became of one the first Asian Americans to enlist in the U.S. Navy. In total more than 50 Chinese Americans fought, on both sides, of the Civil War. Of those who have served only a handful received recognition of their service in the form of pension, benefits, or citizenship. A noted exception is Ching Lee who took the alias Thomas Sylvanus and served in 81st Pennsylvania Regiment. Another lull of recordings of Asian American service followed the end of the civil war until the Spanish American War when it was recorded that Japanese Americans served aboard US Warships in the Battle of Manila Bay; the Philippine...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=24360229 ... Read more

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During the height of racist anti-Chinese U.S. immigration laws, illegal aliens were able to come into the States under false papers identifying them as the sons of those who had returned to China to marry and have children. "American Paper Son" is the story of one such Chinese immigrant who came to Wichita, Kansas, in 1935 as a thirteen-year-old 'paper son' to help in his father's restaurant there. This vivid first-person account addresses significant themes in Asian American history through the lens of Wong's personal stories. Wong served in one of the all-Chinese units of the 14th Air Force in China during World War II and he discusses the impact of race and segregation on his experience. After the war he found a wife in Taishan, brought her to the US, and became involved in the government's infamous Confession program (an amnesty program for immigrants).Wong eventually became a successful real estate entrepreneur in Wichita. Rich with poignant insights into the realities of life as part of a very small Chinese American population in a midwestern town, this memoir provides an important new view of the Asian American experience away from the West Coast.Benson Tong adds a scholarly introduction and useful annotations. ... Read more

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The Vietnam War's influence on politics, foreign policy, and subsequent military campaigns is the center of much debate and analysis. But the impact on veterans across the globe, as well as the war's effects on individual lives and communities, is a largely neglected issue. As a consequence of cultural and legal barriers, the oral histories of the Vietnam War currently available in English are predictably one-sided, providing limited insight into the inner workings of the Communist nations that participated in the war. Furthermore, many of these accounts focus on combat experiences rather than the backgrounds, belief systems, and social experiences of interviewees, resulting in an incomplete historiography of the war.

Chinese native Xiaobing Li corrects this oversight in Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans. Li spent seven years gathering hundreds of personal accounts from survivors of the war, accounts that span continents, nationalities, and political affiliations. The twenty-two intimate stories in the book feature the experiences of American, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and North and South Vietnamese veterans, representing the views of both anti-Communist and Communist participants, including Chinese officers of the PLA, a Russian missile-training instructor, and a KGB spy. These narratives humanize and contextualize the war's events while shedding light on aspects of the war previously unknown to Western scholars. Providing fresh perspectives on a long-discussed topic, Voices from the Vietnam War offers a thorough and unique understanding of America's longest war.

Customer Reviews (1)

Voices From the Vietnam War
This is an essential book for anyone writing non-revisionist history of our most propagandized war. Even the casual reader of military history would add measurably to his knowledge and value to his library. Prof. Li has added well to his list of published works.

Jerry Noel Hoblit, AFC ... Read more

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First time in paperback: An all-encompassing chronicle of African Americans' in the armed forces of the United States.

From the birth of the United States, African American men and women have fought and died in defense of a nation that has often denied them many fundamental rights of citizenship. Now Gerald Astor has chronicled their efforts and accomplishments in this critically acclaimed survey. From Crispus Attucks, first casualty of the American Revolution, to fighters on both sides of the Civil War, Astor moves to the postwar Indian campaigns and the infamous Brownsville riot. He also documents the prejudices and grievous wrongs that have kept African Americans from service-and finally traces their ascent to the highest levels. The Right to Fight is a groundbreaking contribution to American history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great Book
This book was needed for a class. I have found it to be a great dipiction of African American history. If you need a great source for research, this would be it.

A couple of remarks
This is a readable and graphic history, mostly from the vantage point of the common soldier. Politics in the larger sense are frequently neglected. A glaring example of this neglect is the brief and flippant coverage of President Harry Truman's actual order to desegregate the US Armed Forces, the Executive Order 9981, issued in July of 1948. This seems to me to have been the single most important event in the entire saga, yet the author dismisses Truman in three pages, mostly quoting old letters which demonstrate, surprise! that GiveEmHell Harry used coarse language (in private) when talking about racial demographics, as he did when talking about everything else (in private). Readers who are looking for an account of what led up to this decision, which Truman knew could lose the Deep South in the tight upcoming election * will need to look elsewhere. The book "Foxholes and color lines : desegregrating the U.S. Armed Forces", by Sherie Mershon and Steven Schlossman (John Hopkins, 1998) has an entire chapter on this decision which so infuriated the white South and proved to be so important in the Civil Rights era.
Another deficiency, unfortunately not unusual these days, is the complete lack of notes. There is a bibliography, but who knows where a particular fact may have come from?
A good resource, but far from comprehensive.

* he did lose the Deep South; four states to a fellow who, though he was sworn to uphold the rule of law, was known to invite adversaries in public debate out onto the street to settle their differences, and, though not officially taking an oath to do so, loudly proclaimed that he would fight with all his might against "mixing", as it was then called, forbidden interaction that could ultimately lead to miscegenation. As it happened, the wowser who gained South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi (plus an anomalous single Electoral Vote in Tennessee) but, to history's gratitude, lost the United States, had himself been guilty of miscegenation. With progeny to prove it.

Definitive work on an area that has been grossly overlooked
The subject that Gerald Astor has chosen to write about, depicts the continuing saga of a group of people that has been the subject of more studies then any other group in America. In a methodical and comprehensivemanner the author gives us a chronological history of Black American andhistoric accomplishments of the black soldier. From the American Revolutionto the Persian Gulf Astor paints a picture through interview and analysisthat cuts away the bias that has been the hall mark of the manner that thissubject has heretofore been treated. His anecdotal passages add a sense ofthe social and cultural times that are germain to the periods of history hewrites about.The story of the first American Hero, Sgt Henry Johnson ofAlbany NY in WWI and the Montford Point Marines in WWII are of exceptionalimportance in this work. All to often these men and their significantcontribution that helps to keep the fabric of America strong are grosslyoverlooked! This book is a must for African American HIstory, MilitaryHistory and American History buff's in general. ... Read more

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By the end of World War II, many black citizens viewed service in the segregated American armed forces with distaste if not disgust. Meanwhile, domestic racism and Jim Crow, ongoing Asian struggles against European colonialism, and prewar calls for Afro-Asian solidarity had generated considerable black ambivalence toward American military expansion in the Pacific, in particular the impending occupation of Japan. However, over the following decade black military service enabled tens of thousands of African Americans to interact daily with Asian peoplesencounters on a scale impossible prior to 1945. It also encouraged African Americans to share many of the same racialized attitudes toward Asian peoples held by their white counterparts and to identify with their governments foreign policy objectives in Asia.In Black Yanks in the Pacific, Michael Cullen Green tells the story of African American engagement with military service in occupied Japan, war-torn South Korea, and an emerging empire of bases anchored in those two nations. After World War II, African Americans largely embraced the socioeconomic opportunities afforded by service overseasdespite the maintenance of military segregation into the early 1950swhile strained Afro-Asian social relations in Japan and South Korea encouraged a sense of insurmountable difference from Asian peoples. By the time the Supreme Court declared de jure segregation unconstitutional in its landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, African American investment in overseas military expansion was largely secured. Although they were still subject to discrimination at home, many African Americans had come to distrust East Asian peoples and to accept the legitimacy of an expanding military empire abroad. ... Read more

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Race, Stories, and Remembering
Okihiro's thesis in this oral history project is to examine "the nature of antiracism and its articulations with racism and their outcomes" (Okihiro, Storied Lives 137) by focusing on the assistance, the students received from other Americans (Japanese and non-Japanese) and recount their experiences as Nisei students in Word War II America. Moreover, Storied Lives articulates "in their own words" how the same Nisei students struggled to find accommodating schools to attend with or without the help of white Americans. Okihiro also seeks to acknowledge the works of white and Japanese Americans in a shared battle against racism. Okihiro contends that Asian American studies - in fact, race relations as a phenomenon - will gain from an understanding not just of racism but also of its counterpoint in antiracism. Okihiro writes that, "Like racism, it [antiracism] is situated in time and place and [it is] freighted with multiple meanings, ambiguities, and contradictions because of its complex and portable social positions and contexts" (Okihiro, Storied Lives 138).

Gary Okihiro narrates selected archived stories of the over 5,500 Japanese Americans who left the concentration camps to complete their education at more progressive non-west coast college and universities situated outside the exclusion zone. To bring these stories to life, Okihiro investigated the archives/records of both the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council and the War Relocation Authority, surveyed the colleges and universities the Nisei attended, examined and re-articulated oral histories from Nisei students,student relocation staff members, and examined the records of the and other materials. ... Read more

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In this remarkable memoir, Tung Pok Chin casts light on the largely hidden experience of those Chinese who immigrated to this country with false documents during the Exclusion era. Although scholars have pieced together their history, first-person accounts are rare and fragmented; many of the so-called "Paper Sons" lived out their lives in silent fear of discovery. Chin's story speaks for the many Chinese who worked in urban laundries and restaurants, but it also introduces an unusually articulate man's perspective on becoming a Chinese American.

Chin's story begins in the early 1930s, when he followed the example of his father and countless other Chinese who bought documents that falsely identified them as children of Chinese Americans. Arriving in Boston and later moving to New York City, he worked and lived in laundries. Chin was determined to fit into American life and dedicated himself to learning English. But he also became an active member of key organizations—a church, the Chinese Hand Laundrymen's Alliance, and Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association—that anchored him in the community. A self-reflective and expressive man, Chin wrote poetry commenting on life in China and the hardships of being an immigrant in the United States. His work was regularly published in the China Daily News and brought him to the attention of the FBI, then intent on ferreting out communists and illegal immigrants. His vigorous narrative speaks to the day-to-day anxieties of living as a Paper Son as well as the more universal immigrant experiences of raising a family in modest circumstances and bridging cultures.

Historian K. Scott Wong introduces Chin's memoir, discussing the limitations on immigration from China and what is known about Exclusion-era Chinese American communities. Set in historical context, Tung Pok Chin's unique story offers an engaging account of a twentieth-century Paper Son. ... Read more

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During the Second World War, Chinese Americans contributed to the war effort by joining the armed forces and working in the defense industries. In doing so, they improved their social status, often at the expense of Japanese Americans, and positioned themselves to become the "model minority" and the "good Asian in the good war." In "Americans First", K. Scott Wong uses archival research and oral histories to provide the first detailed account of Chinese Americans in the American military. Wong traces the history of the 14th Air Service Group, a segregated outfit of Chinese Americans sent to China in support of the American Army Air Corps and the Chinese Air Force. His ethnic history of inclusion shows how this new generation of Chinese Americans was more socially accepted, moving from the margins of society into the American mainstream during a time of pervasive racism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An untold story
This history of Chinese Americans during WW II goes beyond justh the story but gives the reader a background into the Chinese migration to America.The book is interesting and informative, and its a fast good read.

I was very pleased to find this history and social commentary.
I was very pleased to find this history of the Chinese American experience in World War II and have recommended this book to others. ... Read more

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Although African American soldiers and sailors have fought in every U.S. war from the War of Independence to the War on Terrorism, their contributions are rarely and, at best, erratically recorded in encyclopedias of American military history. Most Americans would be hard-pressed to name even a few of the many heroic black servicemen, who have distinguished themselves in the annals of military history. While a public figure like Colin Fowell is well known, and many people are now aware of the black regiment depicted in the movie GLORY, few have heard of David Lamson, When he was close to sixty years old, this African American captain of a small local militia successfully routed British reinforcements near concord at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Even fewer know about the "buffalo soldiers" (as African American cavalry units were once called) who rescued Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders in the famous battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish American War. This book is teeming with essential information that has been overlooked in other references.

William Weir's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY is designed to provide long overdue recognition to the outstanding accomplishments of hundreds of African American servicemen. More than three hundred entries will not only delineate the achievements of individuals and military units, but will also highlight important, often forgotten battles, wars, legislation and policy, organizations and movements, and historical incidents.

Thoroughly researched and historically accurate, with numerous illustrations, this comprehensive and substantive reference work is written to be accessible, engaging, and informative for all readers. ... Read more

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Long Overdue
I live out in the west where the Buffalo Soldiers (so called by the Indians because the tightly curled hair of the soldiers matched that of the buffalo). When I picked up the book I first looked for and found stories of the famed 24th Infantry Regiment, one of the black regiments founded right after the Civil War of mostly veterans and freed slaves.

From there I found myself fascinated by the stories of individual African Americans in military service. It is clear that the colored, then negro, then black, then African American soldiers have more than earned their place in the sun. I can only hope that this book shines that light. ... Read more

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This is the first collection of letters by a member of the legendary 442nd Combat Team, which served in Italy and France during World War II. Written to his wife by a medic serving with the segregated Japanese American unit, the letters describe a soldier's daily life.

Minoru Masuda was born and raised in Seattle. In 1939 he earned a master's degree in pharmacology and married Hana Koriyama. Two years later the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor, and Min and Hana were imprisoned along with thousands of other Japanese Americans. When the Army recruited in the relocation camp, Masuda chose to serve in the 442nd. In April 1944 the unit was shipped overseas. They fought in Italy and in France, where they liberated Bruyeres and rescued a "lost battalion" that had been cut off by the Germans. After the German surrender on May 3, 1945, Masuda was among the last of the original volunteers to leave Europe; he arrived home on New Year's Eve 1945.

Masuda's vivid and lively letters portray his surroundings, his daily activities, and the people he encountered. He describes Italian farmhouses, olive groves, and avenues of cypress trees; he writes of learning to play the ukulele with his "big, clumsy" fingers, and the nightly singing and bull sessions which continued throughout the war; he relates the plight of the Italians who scavenged the 442nd's garbage for food, and the mischief of French children who pelted the medics with snowballs.

Excerpts from the 442nd daily medical log provide context for the letters, and Hana interposes brief recollections of her experiences. The letters are accompanied by snapshots, a drawing made in the field, and three maps drawn by Masuda. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

a love story via letters
an expression of love during the worst times in a persons life,to be let into that world is a honor.

Hawaiiboy
Great reading - as a previous review mentioned - "Min" is an excellent letter writer.The power is putting down mundane every day tasks and events as they happen - these are things that most histories are missing.Being grubby and dirty, basically living without a home, fear, longing for loved ones and hopes for the future - all this makes this a powerful record of war from a ordinary soldier's personal perspective.

Including the medical unit log entries is genius.My uncle was in the 2nd Battalion.The addition of the places and movements makes the book even more alive.After 65 years I hear about places such as "Hill 140" when some movie or news story about war starts my uncle talking.Hill 140 [...]

Great read.
This is a classic.Everyone should read this book.It is stark and real with a little love and humor.It shows the love the Japanese Americans had for their people and the US.

Compelling and Remarkable
Masuda, his family and friends suffer the humiliation and shame of being forced into camps. Then Masuda decides to fight for the country that put them in the camps. His remarkable choice is never questioned in years of letters, no matter how painful his combat experience.His correspondence reflects not only what is happening on the Europe front, but, insofar as it responds to correspondence from his wife and other Japanese-Americans, it reflects the human toll from the internment program. What makes this book so good is that Masuda is a gifted letter writer (a nearly lost art). The editor also did an outstanding job of providing historical context for Masuda's letters, as well as helping with abreviations and the occasional Japanese word. For anyone whose life was touched (no matter how remotely) by Japanese internment, this book is a must-read! ... Read more

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Asian Americans have made countless distinguished contributions to American society. Like other American racial minorities who have historically been denied opportunities within the American electoral system, Asian Americans have worked steadily to participate in U.S. politics and its judicial system. Asian Americans have a long history of seeking social justice and equal treatment by challenging discriminatory laws and practices in education, employment, housing, land ownership, immigration, and other significant public policy issue-areas. Distinguished Asian American Political and Governmental Leaders is the first-ever compilation of biographies of Asian American elected officials, major political appointees, judges, and activists. It provides information on the life histories and political accomplishments of 96 Asian Americans, who have participated in political, judicial and civil rights arenas of this nation from 1950 to the present. ... Read more

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"The bigger story is that redress is a triumph for all Americans, giving us the heart to pursue other ideals."--from the Foreword by Chizu OmoriWhen President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans could finally claim redress from the government that had violated their constitutional rights during World War II. Films and books have explored the appalling circumstances of these 120,000 Japanese immigrants and their families, twothirds of whom were American citizens, incarcerated in ten camps situated in eight western states from 1942 until 1946.What is not commonly known is that the roots of redress began to take shape with a few second-generation Japanese American engineers at the Boeing Company in Seattle in the late 1960s. Tired of being disregarded by their hakujin (white) colleagues, they decided to change the perception that most Americans had of hardworking, silent Asians. Their decision coincided with the opening of a 1970 museum exhibit in Seattle that examined the history of Japanese Americans in the Northwest, depicting in compelling images the consequences of Executive Order 9066. From these initially unrelated circumstances a movement was born that involved national organizations and eventually gained congressional attention in the 1980s. Robert Sadamu Shimabukuro has constructed a very personal testimony from hundreds of interviews with those who lived in the wartime camps and with those who initiated the campaign to seek a public apology from the United States government. ... Read more

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Nisei Memories is an extraordinarily moving account of two second-generation Japanese Americans who were demonized as threats to national security during World War II. Based on Paul Takemoto’s interviews with his parents, in which they finally divulge their past, Nisei Memories follows their lives before, during, and after the war -- his father serving his country, his mother imprisoned by it.

At the start of the war, twenty-one-year-old Kaname (Ken) Takemoto was a sophomore at the University of Hawaii. Although classified as an "enemy alien," he served in the army, first as a Varsity Victory Volunteer and then as a combat medic with the 100th Battalion /442nd Regimental Combat Team in Italy.

Fifteen-year-old Alice Setsuko Imamoto was attending high school in California when the war began. Soon after, her father and mother were both imprisoned. She and her three sisters were sent to an assembly center in Santa Anita, and eventually the family was reunited at a relocation camp in Jerome, Arkansas. She was finally released to attend Oberlin College on a music scholarship.

Like so many others, Ken and Alice had never spoken of their experiences, which, as their son explains, "loomed as backdrops to our lives, but until now were never discussed." While his father had relived his wartime experiences over and over in his mind, his mother blocked many of hers from memory. Takemoto fills in some of the gaps with information gleaned from correspondence and documents. Of unusual power and appeal, the interviews lead readers through the half century of uncertainty and trauma endured by the family before it was able to confront issues central to its existence. They tell a story of perseverance and forgiveness and, ultimately, pride. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nisei Memories
Paul Howard Takemoto made a very moving account of his parents treatment during WWII.He used interviews of both parents to tell their story.Interesting to read as well as an excellent account of America's treatment of the Japanese Americans during the war. I hope we learn from it.

Not the Brightest Time in America's History
The forced movement of thousands of Japanese-Americans from the West Coast of the United States to camps inside the country is not one of America's better moments. At a political level the arguments are still raging. A group of activists have succeeded in getting not only an official apology but a cash payment. On the other side, there are reports that the recently declassified Magic intercepts confirm that there was an active spy ring operating in the West Coast Ports. I frankly don't know.

This book, however, is not on the larger political aspects. It is on the personal issues of two people, the author's parents. They were stripped of their property, sent to camps, and generally deprived of the rights we expect as citizens. Their stories match those of several people I have known.

The stories of his father in the 442 Regimental Combat Team have particular meaning to me as I have met several veterans of the 442. All had been wounded in action. ... Read more